Battle-Interrupting Shout

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Here are the two opposing armies, staring each other down, grinding their teeth, preparing for a massive and hopefully glorious battle. At some signal or instigation, they convene, with the glint and clash of steel and the rising of dust. But suddenly, rising over the noise of battle, and usually right before any actual fatalities occur, a voice is heard:

"STOOOOOP!"

It's The Captain, or the Old Master, or someone else of high authority. Alternately, it's an innocent bystander, probably a child, or someone else who is involved with whatever reason the two armies have for wanting to fight in the first place. Whoever they are, they've probably placed themselves physically between the two sides, with arms outstretched and palms facing out towards either force. And, at least most of the time, the cry for cessation is heeded.

Which is a little bit hard to swallow. Leaving aside the question of how one person's voice could be heard, simultaneously, by everyone, over the noise, many of them (especially the bad guys) would have no reason to obey the command and probably use the hesitance of the other side to seek an advantage.

As it is, both sides tend to pause at least temporarily to see what this interloper has to say. Often, the designated baddies will ignore it, or their commander will Kick the Dog by commanding the attack to continue, or by actually attacking the speaker.

Examples:

This happens a lot in the Macross series, usually by way of a pop song, as music is utterly confusing to most aliens and causes disruption, allowing the humans to attack with little repercussion. It has also been used to resolve conflicts more peacefully, however.

Done twice by Nia in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann when Adiane attacks. It works the first time because she's a princess, and seems to work the second time until Adiane informs Nia that her father has abandoned her, and takes her hostage.

Subverted by Princess Vivi as per Rule of Drama when she tried to stop the revolutionary army from attacking the royal palace. Her screams for the fighting to stop aren't heard by anyone who cares, and it eventually turns into a Madness Mantra

Luffy screams for a crowd to stop during the Marineford Arc as an axe is coming down to kill Ace. Luffy's scream causes almost an entire battlefield to faint and froth at the mouth. Turns out it's his Conqueror's Haki, and the big fish in the war remain standing.

Coby also gets such a moment during the Marineford war - Whitebeard and Ace have been killed, and now the marines and pirates are simply wearing each other down and taking enormous losses on both sides. Coby stands up in the middle of the battle and screams, bringing the battle to a temporary halt and revealing that he possesses shades of the same superpower as Luffy. Bonus points for facing down Akainuwithout blinking immediately afterwards.

Comic Books

DuckTales: Scrooge brings back King Fulla Cola as the natives, the Beagle Boys, and the members of the Mc Duck household are engaged in a battle. It's played somewhat more realistically than normal, as Fulla Cola's first shout does not quite get through the noise. However, then he bellows, "STOP!" and everyone stops in their tracks.

Fanfic

In the Teen Titans fic At Odds, Beast Boy gets into a fight with a number of Tamaranians who mistook him for an enemy (he was flying a captured Gordanian ship). He tries getting them to stop before he kills anyone, but it doesn't work until Starfire shouts at them to.

Film — Animated

Played for laughs in The Aristocats. Roquefort the mouse is trying to unlock the tumblers on the shipping trunk Edgar locked Duchess and the kittens into. Meanwhile Edgar is battling Scat Cat's alley cats. Finally Roquefort screams, "QUIET!" and Edgar and the cats freeze in mid-fight. Roquefort opens the lock and the combatants promptly go back to fighting. (It's funnier than it sounds on the page.)

Film — Live-Action

Happens frequently in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, often with Jack as the peacemaker. For instance, in On Stranger Tides, he halts a row between pirates and Spanish soldiers to point out that none of them have any real quarrel with one another even if their leaders do. This sways exactly one pirate, while everyone else goes back to fighting.

At the end of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Ace prevents a war between two neighboring African tribes over the theft of a sacred bat, by running between the armies with it in his hands, shouting its name (which according to the tribes' traditions, requires all who hear it to kneel).

Classic example in Children of Men where the premise is that no human baby has been born for 18 years. The cry of a baby stops a chaotic close range firefight between the British Army and armed refugees in an internment camp long enough for the protagonists and the baby to make their escape. One, however receives a (possibly) fatal injury. And they revert to killing each other as soon as they've left.

Star Wars Downunder. After killing the evil Darth Drongo who has been hoarding all the beer on the planet, Jedi Knight Merve Bushwacker emerges from his base brandishing a beer can, and calls on Drongo's mooks and the rebel forces to stop fighting.

Merve: Look! Look at it! It's cold! It's frosty! It's beautiful! And you're all about to kill each other for it! Stop this madness now, ya boofheads! There is enough for everyone!

Literature

In The Hobbit, Gandalf appears between the Dwarven, Elvish, and Human armies as they move to battle each other:

Gandalf: Halt! Dread has come upon you all! Alas! it has come more swiftly than I guessed. The Goblins are upon you!

Jingo has Vimes and Carrot do this (and it works, since Carrot's so Lawful Good he practically warps reality to make everyone else the same).

Another Discworld example, which lampshades how unlikely this is, in Monstrous Regiment where it is noted that when someone shouts stop it takes a bit of time to happen on account of everyone being a bit busy with all the fighting to listen.

However, in the same book, Jackrum did supposedly stop a bar fight once by belching.

It ought to be noted that this was likely more due to the foul stench and rush of air than the noise

In Stephen King's The Stand, a nameless sergeant attempts to do this and immediately gets riddled with bullets from both sides.

In the beginning of The Malloreon, Belgarion is called upon to stop a war involving some of his friends. Both armies being Arendish, he decides he needs more than just his voice when stepping in between the opposing forces, so he calls down a thunderstorm. They stop fighting.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry attempts to stop an argument between Snape and Sirius which is on the verge of turning into a duel, by shouting and placing himself between them. This has little effect, but luckily the two combatants are distracted a moment later when the entire Weasley family shows up, Arthur having just been released from hospital.

Harry does this again in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this time to stop an argument between Ron and Ginny over Ginny's love life, by trying to reason with Ginny ("He doesn't mean anything", says Harry; Ginny retorts with "Oh yes he does!") before placing himself between them. The argument escalates despite Harry's attempt at curtailing it, culminating in Ron firing a jinx at Ginny that misses when she taunts Ron once too many, Harry pinning Ron to the wall to stop him, and Ginny telling Ron off before walking away, finally ending the argument.

This is how Shadow prevents a war between the old and new gods in American Gods, although he doesn't shout. He just casually explains how they've all been had and they go home.

Mythology and Religion

Roman Mythology: The Sabine women, when their dads FINALLY get around to trying to rescue them, run between the two armies holding up their babies (apparently it took the Sabines at least ten months to get their act together) and demand their menfolk make nice.

Live Action TV

On one episode of The Cosby Show, Rudy tells Cliff a story she wrote about two countries going to war. At the end, just when the hostilities are about to start, a little girl shouts "Stop", and they stop. The end.

In the Classic Doctor Who episode "Battlefield" the Doctor is determined to stop a battle between opposing armies and resorts to this method, with a little inspiration from the Brigadier:

The Doctor: I'll deal with that later. First, I've got to put an end to this bloodshed.

The Brigadier: Oh, how, Doctor? Stand in the middle and shout stop?

The Doctor: Good idea. One scene later and the Doctor is in the middle of the battle shouting "STOP!", and everyone does.

Subverted in Angel. Demons are about to attack Angel when Lorne shouts, "STOP...in the naaaame of looove..." as singing is painful to demons. It works until he's interrupted by a Tap on the Head, and they wake up prisoners.

Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "Journey's End", Wesley does this as a battle breaks out between Cardassian soldiers and Federation colonists. In response to his shout TIME FREEZES including phaser beams in mid-air.

Theater

Otello: "Abbasso le spade!"

Romeo and Juliet: "Throw thy mistempered weapons to the ground!"

Video Games

In Magicka, Vlad intervenes in boss battles multiple times, and in one instance he stops you from killing a not-actually-evil boss by yelling "STOOOOP!"

Eve, the krogan female whose immunity to the genophage makes her the key to her species' salvation, needs nothing more than a resolute "Enough!" to instantly stop an argument between two powerful male warlords and their retinues from turning violent. She then follows it up with an epic combination of "The Reason You Suck" Speech and Rousing Speech to remind the squabblers that they have actual enemies to fight out there. It works like a charm.

Rayquaza from Pokémon Emerald does this with a roar, causing Kyogre and Groudon to stop fighting.

Lero-ro, a Ranker from Tower of God, who stops a fight between Regulars just with a sharp remark.

Western Animation

In the Smurfs' Animated Adaptation of the comic book story "King Smurf", all that is needed to stop the Smurf civil war is for Papa Smurf to return and roar, "Stop!"

Played somewhat for laughs in the second part of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic pilot when the ponies are attacked by a manticore in the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy tries to get the other five to stop fighting it — but, being Fluttershy, it takes a few failed attempts before she manages to stop whispering and get out the final "WAAAAIT!" (that actually does end the fight) at a proper volume.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars has a tragic example during the Umbara story arc. General Krell has sent the 501st out to intercept a force of Umbarans that have disguised themselves as clones but, mid-battle, Rex realises something about the enemy: they're not just wearing the uniforms of the 212th, they are the 212th. General Krell has pitted them against their own brothers. In order to stop the fighting, Rex runs along between the lines, shouting for everyone to stop firing and take off their helmets.

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